The Marmara Sea basin as a regional depression constrained from ambient noise correlation tomography

SUMMARY We computed a 3-D shear wave velocity model of the Marmara Sea region from ambient noise tomography. The correlations of up to 8 yr of vertical-component seismic recordings from 80 broad-band stations provided Rayleigh wave group velocity measurements in the period band 6–21 s at more than 1400 selected virtual source–receiver pairs. Rayleigh wave group velocity maps were used to derive a shear wave velocity model through simulated annealing inversion. The resulting crustal model provides coverage of the Marmara Sea along with its surrounding regional tectonic features. This allows for an investigation of the spatial extents of the Marmara Sea on a scale larger than that of basins. The low-velocity structures of the Marmara Sea and the Thrace Basins are coeval to a depth of approximately 9 km. The crustal velocities beneath the Marmara Sea basins exhibit a low vertical gradient and smooth horizontal variations. The regional tectonic structures, such as Istranca Massif, Istanbul and Sakarya Zones, display sharp velocity contrasts with the lower velocity crust beneath the Marmara Sea. The observed low crustal velocities, along with depth variations of the velocity isosurfaces (i.e. 3.4 km s−1) indicate that the Marmara region is a structural depression much deeper and larger than the three basins of the North Marmara Trough. The North Anatolian Fault Zone is unlikely to be the primary factor contributing to the origin of this significant depression, as the basin's development appears to have occurred before the fault propagated into the region.